After The Event Insurance

What is After the Event (ATE) Litigation Insurance and what are the benefits?

After the Event (ATE) Insurance protects litigants in respect of adverse costs awarded against them in the event that their claim is unsuccessful. It is usually the responsibility of the unsuccessful party in the litigation to have to pay a significant proportion of the winner’s costs, as well as their own. ATE Insurance offers a safeguard against all or part of that risk.

Standard ATE cover will meet the other side’s costs, and sometimes cover can be extended to include an element of the litigant’s costs (e.g. Counsel’s fees) in investigating and pursuing the claim.

Having ATE cover in place enables you to sleep more easily and means your opponent will find it harder to outmuscle you.

Please note that it is not possible to obtain ATE without having appointed a Solicitor.

How ULP can help?

ULP have over 15 years’ experience and expertise in this field - we provide the highest level of professionalism.

We assist in optimising proposals/submissions to Insurers, and we use our expertise and relationships to your advantage.

We can really help improve the odds of securing one or more Quotations.

How much does After the Event (ATE) Insurance cost?

The good news is that an ATE premium (the cost) is usually only payable if you win and when you win (if you lose there is nothing to pay).

Plus, premiums are normally variable, meaning the sooner/earlier you win, the less you will have to pay (so an early settlement may make commercial sense).

But - and there’s no beating about the bush - ATE is usually expensive because most litigation is risky, especially if your Opponent is disinclined to settle with you. The longer a case runs, the riskier it becomes (in terms of the consequences of losing). If you win late in the day or in Court, the premium/cost will invariably be very expensive.

As a ‘ballpark’ - and based on many years’ experience - the cost of ATE as a global average tends to be between 20% and 30% of the amount of cover purchased.

You could limit your budget as to the premium; we could seek as much cover as your budget will allow (and, if you share in the risk, an Insurer may charge less).

If you are seeking a cost benefit analysis of your litigation, why not use our Consultancy Service.

Frequently Asked questions

Yes, however due to the complex nature of ATE insurance we can only process applications through a Solicitor, so our advice is to discuss ATE Insurance with your Solicitor in the first instance. They may already make use of our services but, regardless, we would be very happy to discuss your case with them - so please feel free to pass on our contact details.

There is no hard and fast rule as to when your Solicitor should approach us on a one-off ATE litigation case. Legal Proceedings can already have been issued, and we have even been able to place cover at the Court steps. But, generally speaking, obtaining cover - especially for a case that is strong enough but only just - can prove a lengthy process so it is advisable to approach us in good time if there is a deadline approaching.

Our recommendation is that we are approached as soon you and your Solicitor have explored the various funding options available and decided that an ATE Insurance policy is or may be the best option (or an integral part of the best option - for example in conjunction with obtaining Litigation Funding or Litigation Finance).

As a minimum, the ATE Insurers usually expect to see some form of response from the Opponent so that they know what they are up against and that litigation is a real possibility; also that some supportive evidence has been gathered.

Yes, we normally charge an Application Fee of £250 (no VAT) for providing our broking service. Aside from this fee, we are paid by the Insurer only on successful cases that are insured. Normally we will not be paid any brokerage if the case goes on cover but loses.

Our Proposal Form is accepted by all the Insurers we approach, so your Solicitor will be saving a lot of time by coming to us. We normally spend many hours working on a case whether or not a Policy is taken out. If your Solicitor was to do the equivalent work themselves, they might not know where to go, could take much longer and this could also drive up the fees they charge you!

No, but some Insurers will not quote terms unless you are on a CFA and it may make a difference to others who might otherwise be inclined to ‘sit on the fence’. The rule is that the stronger the case demonstrably is, the less difficulty we will experience in trying to get ATE Quotations.

It depends on the complexity of the case and the quality of the supporting documentation, but (and this is ‘worst case’) we aim to be back to your Solicitor with a useful indication within two to three weeks and provide them with one or more Quotations within a month or so of receipt of all the requisite information. In any event, we will manage expectations and we can usually ‘up the pace’ with Insurers when we need to.

We typically approach more than half a dozen Insurers on any one case. We do not go to every Insurer in the market on every case; our knowledge and experience dictates who is worth approaching on each and every case that we are instructed on.

Occasionally we might be able to point you in a certain direction, but by and large because we ourselves are Insurance and Credit Brokers and not Solicitors we stick to what we know and shy away from recommending Firms - look at www.lawsociety.org.uk and click on ‛Find a Solicitor’.